family stuff

Barely over a week ago was the Halloween expedition where I (being me) decided a month prior that I was going to pack my family into Lady Liberty and drive across the state to take my kids, my brother’s kids, and my brother-in-law’s kids, a total of 8 kids, out Trick O’ Treating. Yup. I’m a bit insane like that.

Of course, first I had to put together the costumes. The parts were from our closets, handmade, and store bought. There were even some parts of our costumes that were from last year. Niki wanted to wear her angel costume from last year, so we based our “family” costumes off of that.

We went as Angels versus Demons.

Niki’s costume was complete but needed a few adjustments. I removed the wire insert that made the dress tent-like and raised the hem so she wasn’t tripping all over the place. Then I had to replace the straps for the wings because the old ones were stretched out beyond repair.

The hubs’ costume was slightly easier. He went as an angel like Niki. He would wear the Dr. Horrible “Mad Scientist” white lab coat I made for his costume last year. All we needed were wings. There was no way I was going to make them (not enough time and no materials), so we went shopping. We found a nice white one made of feathers.

We also bought a similar pair of wings for my costume. Except it was smaller and black. I was going as a demon, so I grabbed black and red clothes out of my closet. The final touch was a pair of black horn hair clips I found for $4.

For Maeby, going as a little demon to match mommy, I bought her a red headband with horns, and threw together some black and red clothes from her closet. Her wings were my biggest obstacle. While out shopping for wings for the rest of us, we couldn’t find a good pair in her size. I had to make it myself. So I searched the internet high and low, but couldn’t find anything using the materials I had on hand. I needed to get more creative.

I searched the house for some wire and found one that came out of one of our old pop-up mesh baskets. Perfect. Now just to cut and shape. I took pliers and tried to cut the wire in half with no luck. That sucker was too thick, and I too weak, to cut that way. So, I grabbed the hammer, placed the wire and pliers on the ground in the garage, and gave it one good whack. Snap! Yeah. I’m good.

Shaping was a little harder. I needed the two wires to be M-shaped. I could only bend the wires so much with my hands, but to get a slightly more permanent curve, I used the pliers. Placing one wire above the other, I stretched the upper wire ends out to make the M-shape a little wider. In order to hold the two wires together, cover the sharp edges, and make it look more like the bone structure of demon wings, I wrapped the whole thing with black electrical tape. I know what you’re thinking. SO MUCH FUN!

Once that was done, I had the “frame” of the wings done. Just have to figure out how to add the wings. So I ran into my office/craft room and dug through the mess my supplies looking for something, anything, that would work. Look! Some red felt that I forgot I bought from Goodwill. Or Value Village. Or some other thrift store. Perfect! So, I placed the wire on top, traced and cut out the two wings, found some black felt, and sewed on some pockets to insert the wire ends. Almost finished! I sewed on black fabric ribbon to make the lines on the back side of the wings and wrapped extra around to pull the whole thing together. I cut up some old black stockings and attached them to make the straps. OMG! I’m done!

Now it may seem like it was easy enough to do, but the ideas didn’t come to me immediately, but instead slowly over a span of a few days. It took a few weeks, start to finish, to complete all the costumes in addition to my regular daily things to do.

And let us not forget that it wouldn’t be an adventure if things didn’t go wrong. All of which happened while going door-to-door. Like the hubs’ wings hanging too low. Or Niki wanting to be a princess because her cousin was one. Or the straps on Maeby’s wings stretching out. Or Niki’s wings getting caught and ripping on a chain link fence. Or Maeby’s horns constantly falling off her head. The handles of my brother’s boys’ pumpkin buckets coming out. The wind blowing so hard my fingers were almost frozen. My nephew’s mask blocking his eyes. And more. Much more.

But it was worth it. All the kids going out together, then hanging out and stuffing their faces with sweets afterward. The cute costumes. Time with family. I’m not complaining. But um. Next year I’m staying close to home.

Next up: Holiday head rush: Pre-Thanksgiving which has already started.